large amount of liquid $ for short time - most miles?
 

I have a moved a sizable amount of $ around for a condo downpayment. (About 20% and I live in Boston, so it's a heck-of-alot). I'm hoping to buy a condo asap but nothing great has caught my eye. I'm very active in searching for a place and know nothing on the market right now will work for me (read: I'm not closing any time soon). I currently have the $ in ingdirect but was soliciting ideas to move the $ for a short stay (a month or two) in some way to get miles (leveraging the large amount of $ to maximize miles). Remember, this is my downpayment, so I'm not really interesting in a risky proposition where loss of capital is likley. Any thoughts?

How quick could I close out a brokerage account? What sort of charges would they incur? What would be the most conservative route with the $ once it is in?

I like focus on miles on DL and UA

Great question. I have the same problem ;)

Well--without even touching the money--have you already planned on using the real estate and mortgage lending partners of whichever airline is your favorite?

Depending on the amount, BankDirect (AA miles) can be a better deal than the brokerage accounts which generally have fees for closure within 6 months or at least don't award all the miles for several months (a generalization).

BankDirect offers 10 miles for every $100 of avg balance each month, in addition to 1000 miles for account signup, 1000 miles for being referred by an existing accountholder, 5000 miles for first direct deposit (and 1000 miles for using billpay for a year, but that's not necessarily applicable in this case).

$200k balance = 20k AA miles/month

3 months should yield 67k AA miles.

Hey, if you've got $10mm then you're Lifetime Gold in a month and Lifetime Platinum in 2 months. Not that you'd need status if you've got an extra $10mm to park in a checking account for 2 months. :D

I would second BankDirect. I've been really happy with their service. There are a ton of threads about it on Flyertalk, and many of us (including myself) would be happy to provide a referral, since we both (I think.) get 1,000 bonus miles.

By the way, I'm from Boston and now live in NYC, so I understand exactly what you are saying about housing prices--the down payment itself is probably larger than the cost of our condo was in my last home (Minneapolis).

Mike

Edited to add: Don't forget about FDIC coverage up to 100K. You can get around this somewhat by putting money in a spouse's/partner's name if one is available. Another suggestion is E*Trade, where you can get up to 75k Delta miles for 150K, but you need to have it in their for 6 mos. to get the miles and it costs $50 to close the account. You can leave the money in a money market so it has negligible risk.

Thanks for the help. I knew about these products but what curious what others have done or recommended and the responses have helped.

I have done some quick and very basic math. (please check it as my math skills are not great)

ing is paying 2.2% for savings and bankdirect is at 1% (for the highest yield mileage accruing non-CD)

So for a 100k deposit in ing you would make $183.33 per month in interest and at bankdirect you make $83.33 (makes the math pretty easy).

In essence you are buying the 10,000 AA miles for $100 or $.01/per mile. Of course this is taking into account gleff's bonuses he mentioned. Not bad, but not fantastic either.

Don't forget that interest is taxable while miles are not (yet). You may want to redo your calculations with an after-tax interest figure.

Very good call! thanks!

I jumped over to take a look, as this piqued my interest.

It looks like the MM account that gives a 1% yield only gives you 50 miles/$1000 balance, correct?

To get the 100 miles/$1000 balance you need to be in the Checking account, which yields only 0.75%.

Also - when banks say 0% under 2.5K, .5% for 2.5-10K and .75% over 10K, that typically means the portion of your balance under 10K yields the stated amount and only the margin over 10K gets the .75%.

Doing the quick math with chobby100's assumptions below, the MM yields about $.0173/mile and the Checking $.0105/mile.

Of course, at my curent institutions's lowly 1.27%, it's more like $.004/mile. Time to sign up. Or find a new account.

YMMV

The math has already been done at the AA forum.

As noted the Bankdirect checking account works better than the saving account.

Also Bankdirect gives signup bonuses, and the miles are not taxed. Assuming a 30% tax bracket for federal and state, I estimate the cost is more like $.008/mile comparing Bankdirect's 0.75% interest to ING's 2.2% interest.

I know this may be an unpopular suggestion on MilesBuzz, but you might consider going for interest rather than miles. The 2.2% at ING is good, but there are banks that will pay you even more. One of those is Superior Bank which is currently paying 3%. On $200K, this would pay you $500/month (less after taxes)

http://www.superiorsavings.com/specials.asp

This looks interesting, but the banks site is amateurish, to put it mildly. Is their online banking interface any better?

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Is your goal to maximize miles or a dual goal of getting miles and the most return (obviously some trade off in that)?

IMHO, you need to go to the DL and UA web sites and see what kind of miles earning possibilities there are for buying a house and with opening new accounts.

Just browing over UA's site--


UA Realty Partners

--Buy a home and earn 3,000 Mileage Plus Miles for each $10,000 of your purchase price.

--Earn 1,300 Mileage Plus Miles for each $10,000 of your home purchase loan amount with WASHINGTON MUTUAL HOME LOANS, WACHOVIA CORPORATE MORTGAGE SERVICES, CITIMORTGAGE, and CHASE HOME FINANCE.*


Fidelity

Open a Fidelity AccountSM and benefit from more than 50 years of experience helping investors reach their goals. Plus, earn valuable Mileage Plus miles:

--5,000 miles for an opening deposit of $2,500–$9,999

--15,000 miles for an opening deposit of $10,000–$49,999

--25,000 miles for an opening deposit of $50,000

Offer valid only for individual or joint Fidelity Accounts (discount brokerage non-retirement account with trading and cash management features that can include stocks, fixed income, options, and mutual funds), personal trust accounts and business accounts opened by calling 1-800-544-3719 by 12/31/05. Offer is not valid for retirement accounts including IRA, Roth IRA, SEP and SIMPLE, 401(k), 403(b), etc.), some fiduciary accounts (including custodial accounts, estate accounts, etc.), college investment trust accounts, 529 accounts and accounts managed by Strategic Advisers, Inc. Please allow eight weeks from account opening and funding with qualifying dollar amount for Mileage plus miles to appear in your United account. Fidelity account must remain open with minimum funding for six months. Transferred assets will be valued at time of receipt by Fidelity.

E-LOAN----

Home Mortgage 1,250 miles per $10,000 borrowed

LendingTree network:

You will receive 3,000 miles for every $10,000* of your home's sale and/or purchase price, just for using a local Real Estate Agent from the LendingTree network.

Sell a home for $200,000 Earn 60,000 miles

Buy a home for $300,000 Earn 90,000 miles

Get a $220,000 mortgage Earn 27,500 miles

LendingTree Home and auto loans:

Want great rates and up to four lenders competing for your business? Apply for a Mortgage, Home Equity or Auto loan and receive
1,250 miles for every $10,000* financed.

Mortgage Loans 1,250 miles for every $10,000 financed

Home Equity Loans 1,250 miles for every $10,000 financed

Auto Loans 1,250 miles for every $10,000 financed


NetBank

Open a NetBank checking account which, within 6 months of opening, has an average monthly balance of at least $1000.*

Open a NetBank money market account which, within 6 months of opening, has an average monthly balance of at least $5000.*

Make direct deposits, within 6 months of opening the new checking or money market account totaling at least $500 in one month.*

Make at least 3 online bill payments in one month from a new NetBank checking account within 6 months of opening the account.*

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Of course, all of these offers have their limitations on new accounts, minimum time account to be open (3 to 6 months), etc.

But, in theory, you could earn points separately for each of the three activities

-using a specific realtor to buy a home
-using a specific lender for a mortagage and
-choosing a financial institution to park your down payment funds.

You may choose to earn mileage with all three activities or any combination of the three.

It depends how much you want to maximize your mileage versus give up some $$ yield in return for the miles earned....

..

I got an offer from Ameritrade for 25k for a $50,000 deposit. I know other brokeage houses used to make this offer on a continuous basis.

The better offer from Ameritrade is http://www.ameritrade.com/spg/

Deposit $25K and get 20K starpoints which convert to 25K airline miles.